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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Pass the chopsticks - August 29 is National Chop Suey Day!

Chop suey is one of those dishes with a history that needs to be taken with a grain of salt. While most have settled on the version that ties its origin to Toisan, a region in China from where many immigrants to American came from, there are some more colorful options.

Some say the dish, like fortune cookies, was invented here in the US. One particular version says the private cooks of Chinese ambassador Li Hung Chang invented and served the dish to Americans at a diplomatic dinner party in New York City in 1896.
Regardless of the origin, the simple dish can now be found in most Chinese restaurants.

"Most Americans know it's not real Chinese food. A handful of them don't care," writes Jennifer 8. Lee in her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. "Yet it still endures."

soundoff(7 Responses)

I love Chop Suey and I have a pair of 9 ft chopsticks to prove it! Lets celebrate National Chop Suey Day!

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August 29, 2012 at 4:16 pm |

Chop Suey Day?!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=466VHt8KldM&w=640&h=390]

August 29, 2012 at 3:26 pm |

Chopped Liver

So what does that make me?!?

August 29, 2012 at 1:41 pm |

jillmarie

I love vegetable chop suey, and veggie chow mein as well. Mine has to have water chestnuts and mushrooms. Now I'm in the mood for Chinese food!
I'm one of those who knows it's not really Chinese food- I've been to Shanghai actually- but it's still yummy!